for I heard the old boards of the lobby creak and strain, as if
under the weight of somebody moving cautiously over them. My sense
of hearing became unnaturally, almost painfully acute. I suppose
the imagination added distinctness to sounds vague in themselves. I
thought that I could actually hear the breathing of the person who was
slowly returning along the lobby.

At the head of the stair-case there appeared to occur a pause; and I
could distinctly hear two or three sentences hastily whispered;
the steps then descended the stairs with apparently less caution. I
ventured to walk quickly and lightly to the lobby door, and attempted
to open it; it was indeed fast locked upon the outside, as was
also the other. I now felt that the dreadful hour was come; but one
desperate expedient remained--it was to awaken Emily, and by our
united strength, to attempt to force the partition door, which was
slighter than the other, and through this to pass to the lower part of
the house, whence it might be possible to escape to the grounds, and
so to the village. I returned to the bedside, and shook Emily, but in
vain; nothing that I could do availed to produce from her more than
a few incoherent words; it was a death-like sleep. She had certainly
drunk of some narcotic, as, probably, had I also, in spite of all the
caution with which I had examined every thing presented to us to eat
or drink. I now attempted, with as little noise as possible, to force
first one door, then the other; but all in vain. I believe no strength
could have affected my object, for both doors opened inwards. I
therefore collected whatever moveables I could carry thither, and
piled them against the doors, so as to assist me in whatever attempts
I should make to resist the entrance of those without. I then returned
to the bed and endeavoured again, but fruitlessly, to awaken my
cousin. It was not sleep, it was torpor, lethargy, death. I knelt down